Eddas

Eddas

Eager to do a service for the Konungar, the group accepted Riddar Elricson’s request to act as messengers to the meeting in Jotunland.

Spending the rest fo the day gathering supplies and making preparations to leave, the party departed early the next morning.

As they traveled, they spent some time talking to the farmers and others they passed about the need for guards for their new settlement.

Despite the barbarian’s press-gang attempts, the party managed to recruit a number of personnel to the town to begin training as guards.

The journey itself proved to be more interesting, with the group managing to run into a small band of marauding orcs, as well as getting lost in the ‘civilized’ areas of Estvar.

The orcs, a small raiding band, fell quickly to the blades of the adventurers. However, they did not seem to be that successful a band of raiders, with little n the way of accumulated valuables.

40gp
6 greataxes
6 suits leather armour
16 handaxes
2 adventurer kits

Eventually, the group made its way out of the settled lands, and into the more wild north. As they approached the mid-point of their journey, they came across an ancient giant outpost, just within the edge fo the forest, as they searched for a place to rest for the night.

Deciding to explore the ‘small’ outpost, they searched for a way in. Finding a large crack in one of the walls, they attempted to climb in, but were attacked by the giant bats that had made the room their home.

The bats proved to be a dangerous fight, with their flyby attacks being most savage. Eventually, they were all defeated, and the group made it into the keep finally. Searching the lair of the bats, few valuables were found.

a small purse with 20gp

Exploring further into the outpost, the group found that the ground floor was essentially empty. A few of the rooms had signs of having been searched previously, and the base of the main tower looked to have been used as a campsite in the past.

Heading upstairs, they came across a scene of savagery. The main hall at the top of the stairs was filled with the leftovers of past battles, with rubble and the remains of bodies strewn about the entire room.

As they moved in to the room to search it, they were attacked by a trio of deadly chokers. The chokers attacked savagely, using the adventurers they grabbed as body shields as they attempted to throttle them to death.

The group emerged victorious, though the battle was savage. Searching the corpses and rubble, the party found some valuables.

The group spent several days back in the town working on the construction of a moat and palisade, as well as establishing trade routes to bring in supplies for the growing town.

Despite being somewhat slowed by sickness contracted in the trash-strewn pit in the dwarven mine, the construction proceeded quite quickly, with only a few incidents to slow it down.

With the trade routes established, and the palisade providing improved security, the group took a few days to rest and finally fight off the last few lingering effects of the sickness.

A few days after the completion of the wall, a visitor arrives at your town, escorted by a double-handful of mounted guards in royal colours.

Dressed in a suit of chainmail and fine furs, he is obviously a man of importance. Long black hair is pulled back behind his head, and his beard has been done up in a short braid.

With your knowledge of history, several of you recognize the torc of a ‘Valk’, a direct representative of the Konungar.

“Greetings. I am Riddar Himmel Elricson. I have come from the Konungar to speak with you.”

Looking around, he seems to approve of the construction progress.

“It seems that my Lord has chosen well in you; you seem most capable. That is good. I suggest that we find a place to rest, you look like you are in need of some mead.”

The insightful amongst you notice that while he doesn’t ignore any non-humans, he obviously dislikes them, and will not deal directly with them whenever possible.

Once you are alone, his guards having taken up positions around you, he hands you a document. Noting that none of you read, he informs you that it is an official land grant from the Konungar. It gives you the rights to impose taxes on the citizens of your town, as well as raise men-at-arms (maximum of 50) for its security and defence.

In addition, he has a request from the Konungar. He needs some competent warriors to travel to the northern reaches of Jotunland and retrieve a package from on of the minor clan chiefs. The meet is scheduled for 2 days after the next passing of Geir (15 days from now).

He pulls out a map and spreads it out on the table between you. You can see a location marked near the far northern end of the Great Northern Forest, within the territory of Jutunland.

You estimate between 10-12 days of travel to reach the location, going around the northern end of the forest.

“As payment for your service, I have been authorized to pay you a sum of 500 gold, half in advance.” He pulls out a pouch of coins, which makes a satisfying thump as he puts it on the table. “Are you interested?”

With several hours rest, the group decided to head back to the mine, and investigate the pit they had discovered earlier.

Unfortunately, their journey back through the mine was interrupted by a large group of orcs that had made their way into the mine.

With no preamble, the two groups attacked each other, with no holding back.

Unfortunately for the orcs, the adventurers dominated the battle from the beginning, quickly laying waste to the orcs before many of them could even react.

During the battle, however, it became apparent that not all of the orcs were working together. One of the orcs, who began the battle with his hands and feet bound, quickly broke free, grabbed ont of the discarded weapons from the ground, and attacked the rest of the orcs from behind.

As the last of the orcs were dispatched, the victors came to stare at each other: the group of mismatched adventurers, and the lone half-orc.

After a few tense moments, and words back and forth, the 2 factions realized that they were very much the same in their views and goals, they decided that working together would be a good idea.

Now allied, they took a short rest to banda their wounds, catch their breath and scavenge the valuables from the multitude of dead orcs.

With their new companion, the group then continued on their trek back to the dark pit.

Arriving at the pit, the group looked down saw the scaffolding the led down into the darkness.

Proceeding cautiously down the scaffolding, they found that it was in very poor condition, even worse than it first appeared.

Unfortunately, despite their caution, a number of the party members fell through weak sections that gave way beneath them. Some of the falls were quite spectacular, breaking through several levels of the scaffolding, weakening it further.

The pit proved to be significantly more dangerous than just the collapsing scaffolding. As the first members of the group reached the rubbish-strewn floor, a half-dozen large tentacles reached up through the accumulated trash and detritus to attacks them.

The tentacles proved to be very dangerous, releasing thick clouds of spores that caused those within the clouds to reel in torpor, leaving themselves open to attack.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in the spore clouds, they began to dissipate and the group was finally able to fight back effectively, and quickly turned the table on the tentacles, and eventually killed them all.

With the last of the mine cavern explored, it was time to head back to the tower, and the small village that was growing there.

The trip through the orcish territory was as dangerous as before. The group fell prey to several attacks and traps of the orcs before they emerged from the forest. The last half day through the relatively safe countryside.

Unfortunately, most of the party was not feeling well over the past few days, and will need time and treatment to get better.

All party members apart from Holdbar are suffering from Stage 1 Filth Fever, and are down 1 healing surge from maximum.

Unable to get any information out of their captive because of language barriers, the group decided to proceed down the tunnel from which he and the other miners had emerged.

The tunnel went a quarter-mile before splitting in a Y. Both branches turned out to be dead ends, though the southern branch did have signs of recent activity; the miners had obviously been working here.

Doubling back to the main tunnel, the group continued along, keeping their eyes and ears open.

A side tunnel to the right led to 2 smaller tunnels. One ended with nothing of note, but the other, after a sharp turn, opened into a large pit leading onwards. Scaffolding could be seen leading downwards into the pit, but little of detail could be seen below.

Leaving the investigation of the pit for later, the group returned to the main tunnel. After a few more minutes walk, they began to hear a dull clanging echoing down the tunnel. Soon, they could see the flickering of firelight ahead.

Proceeding cautiously and stealthily, the group came across a large forge, where a number of the dark dwarves were working at refining and smelting the ore being dug up from the mine.

Unfortunately, despite their attempts to be quiet, the dwarves obviously heard their approach, and like the groups before, attacked without hesitation.

It was a terrible battle, with the group outnumbered almost 4 to one, and a powerful dwarven caster hurling lightning almost brought the group to its end, but eventually fell to the desperate attacks of the adventurers.

Though they did not have much in personal possessions, the dwarves had already refined a significant amount of silver.

Drained from the battle, the group exited the mine and found a safe place to make camp. The dared not move too far from the mine entrance, as it seemed an oasis of safety in the middle of the orcish territory.

With a long rest, the group concealed the wheelbarrows full of silver ore and the colledted weapons of the dwarves and plunged back into the mine, and proceeded to explore the tunnel down which the dwarven caster had been attempting to withdraw. The other tunnel leading from the forge was left for later.

Lithe the other side tunnels, it was quite long, but this one opened into a large cavern, with a small group of the dark dwarves working.

Seeing another of the deadly casters, the group moved quickly to neutralize his power, and the battle quickly turned against the dwarves. Again they had little but their tools and some unrefined ore.

With this small group of the dark dwarves defeated, the group returned to the forge, and proceeded down the remaining tunnel.

It went along way, with little of note, until it finally opened into a huge underground crevice. The path continued along a ledge leading down into the crevice.

Curious, the group headed down into the darkness, following the faint tracks of the wheelbarrows that had gone before.

Eventually, they reached the bottom of the crevice, and continued to follow the tracks for many miles, passing what appeared to be a semi-permanent camp. Eventuallty, having traveled several miles from the mine, the group turned back. Making it back to the small camp-nook they had passed earlier, they sat down for a rest.

Having defeated the Dragon and learned much of the tower, the group decided to return home.

Making their way outside, the group trudged back through the snow to the sphere of swirling red mists that would take them back home. Touching the sphere, they immediately found themselves in an underground cavern, with a single stair leading upwards.

In addition, the group was not whole; the barbarian Thorgrim was missing.

The stair ended in a solid wall, but with a little work the group knocked it down; it was only a few inches thick, but perfectly hid the staircase from the other side, which was located in the basement of the tower.

Making their way outside, they found the group of workers that they had escorted to their lands patiently waiting for them. A few quick questions found that they had only been gone for a few minutes to the waiting workers, not the apparent hours that it had felt like to the group.

With their hired workers finally on site, the group set about improving their lands. New longhouses were built, some lands cleared, and the bodies of all the Kruthik disposed of. 10 days were spent establishing the basis of a new community.

With the construction and other improvements moving along nicely, the group decided it to investigate the map that they obtained from the giant calling himself Odin.

The first day of the journey was fairly straight forward, and the group found the giant tree that was indicated on the map. It turned out to be a truly enormous oak, towering hundreds of feet above the other, large, trees of the forest. Alongside the giant tree were scores of giant ravens, which did not take kindly to the group intruding on their territory.

A small group of the giant ravens immediately attacked the group, bombarding them with flyby attacks.

Though the group emerged victorious, the birds proved a nasty fight, and combined with the constant cawing and potential dangers of the remaining ravens becoming hostile, the group decided to move off from the giant tree before making camp, though they did take a few carcases for food.

The second day of travel was much more dangerous than the first. Traveling north from the tree, the group quickly became aware that they had entered the territory of a fair sized orc tribe.

Attempting to move quickly and quietly through the dangerous territory and reach the mine, they stumbled into several traps and small skirmishes with orcs that left several of the group battered and bruised.

Finally arriving at the site of the mine, the group found it to not be abandoned. As they approached the entrance, a quartet of dwarven guards became apparent.

The dwarves attacked immediately, hurling javelins with deadly accuracy, with no warning and offering no parlay.

The group was able to defeat the dwarf guards, but it proved to be a nasty fight. Searching them after the battle, it became apparent that these were likely ‘dark’ dwarves; their skin was of a dusky dark grey, and their hair and beards was almost uniformly black or very dark brown.

The only valuables they carried was their equipment.

4 suits chainmail
4 warhammers
40 javelins

After a short rest, the group pushed on into the mine.

It quickly became apparent that the mine was likely dug by those of shorter stature. The tunnels were low, and many of the group had to duck under low support beams.

A few short side tunnels, and one long side tunnel were passed, butthey had little of interest apart from some abandoned tools, and seem not to have been used in some time.

Eventually the group came to another large tunnel branch, just as a group of miners arrived from the side tunnel.

Like the guards, they appeared to be dark dwarves, and attacked with no hesitation. Though not as deadly as the guards, the miners did fight well, and inflicted nasty wounds with their mining picks.

They wre dispatched fairly quickly, and without attracting any attention. Searching the miners found little of value apart from their equipment, and the ore in the wheelbarrow.

The battle with the worm was terrible, but you managed to defeat it. As it crashed to the ground dead, you found yourselves following Odin as he walked over to stand in front of the great tear in the air.

‘This is what I wished to show you. It is a Bifrost, a tear in the world. It connects to many places and times, past present and future. The dragon was attempting to use it to make itself a god, but it lacked sufficient knowledge. So it settled for stealing everything it could.

By your time, this tear has sealed itself, but its influence will be felt throughout the tower and the lands around it. Portals and warping of magic could be anywhere. Be careful in their use. While the tower can lead to great wealth and power, what appears to be one thing can be something else altogether.

During my stewardship of the tower, I used its power for the glory of my people, but I was too arrogant in its use, thinking that nothing could match our might, and its power led to the wars between the clans, and to Ragnarok.

Be more careful than we were.’

With those words, you suddenly foundyourselves back in the cavern, standing in front of the fire. They will see light fading from around each of them, and the giant standing, his arms outstretched above their heads.

‘You may return to you lives. But remember my words. And take these tokens. You performed well against the dragon and its minions.’

As he speaks, a small pile of treasure will appear on the floor in front of the PCs including several small sacks of coins and a few items.

100gp, 100sp, 100cp

A collection of valuables (goblets, silver platters, etc) worth a total of 300gp

Gauntlets of the Fire Giant: as gauntlets of ogre power, but additional damage is fire.

A map, showing a location marked as ‘Mine’ in the forest near the PCs keep.

All PCs gain the Giantblooded Trait:
• can now read/write and speak Giant, in addition to any other languages.
• Giantblooded: as Moradin’s Blessing of Iron (DMG2 p141) lv3

‘I am sure that you have questions. Ask them. I will do my best to answer them. Also, the way back to your home has been re-opened; let me know when you wish to return home.’

Finding yourselves standing in front of a giant, who is offering you seats at a bonfire, after the cold of the outdoors, the group decides to be cautious, and carefully sits down at the fire.

As you sit, the giant began to talk, in a deep voice, filled with power.

‘I called you here because you are the first to take over the power of the keep in many long years. Now I must show you some of its secrets. I do not know them all; the tower was around many centuries before the coming of my kin, and has had many owners since. But I learned much during my stewardship of the tower. Now it is time for you to SEE!’

As he uttered the last word, you found yourselves inhabiting different bodies: those of ancient giants, accompanied by a much younger version of the giant from the cavern.

Going with the younger Odin, he led you to the site of the tower, many hundreds of years before it came into your possession.

The tower of that time was much different: made of dark stone, the tower disappears into the clouds, thousands of feet above the ground. At its base are a number of crude buildings. As you approached, you were attacked by a number of axe-wielding humans, covered in green paint and wielding axes in each hand.

They were not a challenge to defeat; a single blow was sufficient to slay the berserkers, and you quickly mad it through them to the entrance of a tunnel leading downwards.

Making your way down the tunnel, you again ran into more of the berserkers, this time accompanies by a pair of powerful giant shamans, also covered with the green paint.

Odin forewarned you of the dangers ahead, indicating where each of the ambushes was to take place. Armed with this information, you were able to quickly turn the tables on the ambushers, and defeat them easily.

Defeating the ambushers, you pushed on, deeper into the earth.

Further down, you came across another great giant, accompanied by a handful of the berserker humans.

He proved to be a dangerous for, using his spear to drive you into the poisonous clouds he and his minions created by breaking open the nearby great clay urns.

With the defeat of the second ambush, you healed up quickly and made the last move into the room at the bottom of the tunnel: the chamber of the great linnorm, Jormgand.

In the chamber, 3 things stood out:

• A great tear in the air, similar to the one seen during the attack of the Kruthik, though much larger and constantly shifting images on the far side.

• A huge hoard of treasure spread around the room, from coins to suits of armour, and everything in between. Enough to buy a kingdom…

• The great dragon, Jormgand. A huge serpent, with a great maw of dripping fangs and a pair of legs ending in powerful claws.

Having gone through the portal in the courtyard, the group found themselves in a huge canyon swarming with the Kruthik that had invaded the tower lands.

Moving through the swarm was not difficult; the vast majority did not even seem to notice the presence of the PCs; only the warrior types needed to be evaded, which proved not to be impossible with the huge numbers of the mindless drones milling about.

Moving out from the portal, the group proceeded towards the first of the emitters.

The constant patrols prevented the group from resting, but moving through the swarm was not too difficult.

The group quickly made it to the first emitter, located high up on a rocky shelf, protected by a single thorn-shooting Kruthik. Though it shot at the group as they climbed the wall,, it did not prove much of a defender for the large crystal sustaining the portal.

The group managed to defeat the Kruthik and destroy the crystal. The crystal was surprisingly fragile, though it did seem to be somewhat resistant to energy. The group also found a large crystal nearby that looked to be valuable.

The crystal can be sold for 300gp, or used as residuum for the creation of magic items.

With the first crystal destroyed, the group pressed on to the next, which proved to be somewhat farther from the portal than the first.

On their way, the group came across the corpse of an unidentifiable humanoid being devoured by 2 swarms of the tiny Kruthik. Quickly dispatching the vermin, the group searched the body, finding g some valuables.

50gp
50 sp
Bloodclaw, Shortsword +1

The second crystal was guarded by a much larger, vicious acid-spitting Kruthik. The battle was much more dangerous than the previous Kruthik, but the party quickly emerged victorious.

With the second emitter destroyed, the portal began to become unstable; the PCs could see it flickering in the distance.

Quickly moving towards it, the PCs had to evade a number of swarms of the Kruthik that were going berserk, attacking anything that approached.

They managed to get through the portal without having to fight.

As the group jumped through the flickering portal, there was a bright flash, a glimpse of the tower courtyard, and then suddenly they found themselves standing on a snow-covered windswept pinnacle of rock, far from their tower.

Freezing from the sudden cold, the group stumbles toward a large cave at the foot of the promontory.

Moving inside, you can see flickering firelight from deep inside. Moving cautiously, the group comes across a great natural cavern, containing a grizzled old giant sitting on a throne made out of the stone of the cavern in front of a great bonfire.

He looks like an aged man, obviously once young and powerful, his shoulders have begun to stoop, and his hair is long grey and started to wither. The lines of his face almost completely hide the strap of the patch over his right eye. The symbol of 3 intertwined triangles can be seen in the corner of his thick fur cloak.

“I mean you no harm. I am sorry for the way in which I brought you here, but I believe it was necessary that we talk, and more subtle methods were not working. Sit, warm yourselves.”

He waves his arm, and five stone seats rise up out of the floor of the cavern.

Having rested the night after escaping the giant in the ruins, the group spent a bit of time in town investigating the giant’s appearance and looking into the uses for the large iron key found in the ruined temple.

The only lead they found regarding the appearance of the giant is the tale of a similar appearance the previous summer, when a giant fiery figure is said to have appeared in the ruins and hurled a great flaming boulder at nearby farmhouses.

The key proved to be far more difficult. Repeated investigations led to a ‘Priest’ of Odin who examined the key, but had little information, other than it was a ’key to a great portal’. The location of the portal was ‘protected by great magic’.

With little to go on, the group decided to collect the workers and materials they had collected and head back to the tower.

Between the poor weather and the slow pace of the small caravan, it took a full week to return to the tower.

Arriving back at the ruins, the group found that they were not as they had left them: unknown creatures were crawling over the grounds.

Halting the caravan, the group moved closer to the ruins and got a better look at the creatures. Leif identified them as Kruthik, a rare pest-like monster. The few legends of them have them as near-mindless devourers of metals.

As the group moved closer to the keep, they were attacked by a swarm of the Kruthik, with several other swarms moving closer.

In the distance, beyond the Kruthik, a large distortion hung in the air. Rainbow colored bands flanked a tear in the air.

It was a protracted battle; swarm after swarm attacked the PCs as they moved towards the portal. Eventually, the group made it to the portal, and after a short rest, the group plunged through.

The other side was a great chasm, with large crystal outcroppings. Dozens of tunnels lead of from the main chasm, and hundreds of creatures can be seen moving around the chasm. The sky, barely seen above was a blood red, with dark clouds

Similar to the Kruthik the group fought, these appeared to be far less deadly; the jagged, sharpened claws of the beasts were replaced with much more rounded legs.

The beasts also seem to be far less aggressive; they move around the groups feet, completely ignoring you.

However, more of the ‘warrior’ types can be seen moving around amongst the ‘worker’ types.

The group quickly learned that it was possible to hide from the patrolling ‘warriors’ by holding absolutely still.

Examining the portal from the other side, Leif was able to sense a trio of power trails leading from the portal deeper into the chasm.

He believes that the portal is being powered/maintained from elsewhere. If you can disrupt the sources of the power to the portal, it should collapse. Two of the power sources should be enough to cause the portal to close.

After defeating the giant skeleton, the group decided that it was time for a rest. Camping out in the room with the skeleton, they passed an uneventful 6 hours bandaging their wounds, eating and resting.

During their rest, they noticed the start of rain outdoors.

Once they were ready to go, they opened the door, which led to a hallway. A collapse had blocked of the majority of the hall, but they could see a staircase leading down, only partially blocked by the rubble.

They spent a bit of time clearing the rubble, making more room to squeeze through. Once they were satisfied with the size of the hole, they proceeded down the stairs, to another locked door.

The lock was not difficult to open, and beyond the door was a short hallway with 3 doors; two to the left, and one ot the right.

The 2 doors to the left had little; the first was mostly collapsed, and the second an empty holding room.

The door on the right led down another short staircase, and into a large temple. The room was mostly empty, with a large ice-covered altar near the far end.

The more perceptive could just make out a symbol under the ice. Moving to investigate, Ghesh and Leif moved into the room. As they reached the center of the room, a trio of large ice-bound humanoids rose up around the altar.

The group managed to quickly dispatch the beasts, and found a small trove of valuables pouring from a compartment in the back of the altar.

The coins are larger and heavier than standard Estvar coinage, and are worth 5 sp each. Total about 300gp worth of coins.

Frost Longsword +1

Examining the symbol, none were able to identify it.
After a short rest, the group proceeded through the small door in the right wall.

The door opened into another small hall, this one with 2 doors leading from it.

The door on the right side led to an anteroom with a large mural carved on the far wall.

It is of a large underground cavern, half-filled with water. At the far end, a stone pier juts out into the water, offering an easy landing point. A skiff is tied t the pier. Beyond the pier, a path leads to a set of massive doors carved into the far wall. Massively wide and tall, they are carved in representations of great battles. Near the top of the doors, carvings of Valkyries can be seen, watching over the battle and lifting up the spirits of the valiant dead.

The last room was another temple, though much smaller than the previous. As they entered, a large glowing blue version of the mysterious symbol appeared over the altar and began blasting the group with thunder and lightning.

The fight with the symbol was short, but brutal. Searching the altar, the group found another secret compartment, this one containing only a large dark, iron key.

With the key in hand, the group retraced its steps, looking for a keyhole in which it fit, but found none.

Returning to the entry room, the group found that there was a terrible storm raging outside. This caused the climb of the rope to be significantly more difficult.

Once outside, the group found that the storm was much worse than it appeared, with horrendous rains, winds and lightning.

The more perceptive members of the group spotted something more dangerous than the storm: a great giant wandering through the ruins. Unfortunately, the giant caught sight of the group, and the party members were forced to flee before it could attack.

Running headlong through the ruins was dangerous, but all the party members managed to escape with only minor injuries.

Regrouping at the edge of the ruins, the group decided to head back to town and rest. It was a long walk back to town in the storm, but the group managed to make it, and found a nice dry inn in which to rest, tales of their exploits netting them free room and board.